The overall theme of the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) Center will be to train researchers, especially physicians/scientists to be independent investigators in research related to Women's Health. This program will be an institutional program crossing departmental barriers and will include the disciplines of developmental biology, molecular genetics, cell biology, behavioral sciences, cardiovascular sciences, women's cancer-related problems, clinical pharmacology, translational and clinical investigative research, as well as Health Services research. No core laboratory is being requested as these facilities will be made available for use to scholars in departments where the faculty mentors are situated or institutional core facilities. The training is divided into three phases to train physicians/investigators and institutional funds will be made available for the first two phases and BIRCWH Center grant will be utilized only for the third phase. The success of the program will be determined when the scholars obtain competitive independent peer reviewed funding like the ROI. The impact of the BIRCWH Center will extend beyond the New Program Development Awardees and will also be felt by the faculty members at UCLA. This will facilitate the recruitment of medical students, house officers and fellows into investigative basic, clinical and Health Services research related to Women's Health. In view of the multidisciplinary approach of the activities of the Center, we anticipate that faculty mentors from other departments who are a part of the mentor pool will better appreciate the problems related to Women's Health and later form a nucleus for the establishment of a Women's Health Research and Training Center at UCLA.